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Jul. 7th, 2009 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sadie_cocopuffthere's apparently something about the 7th of the month that inspires a wish to write about my life...
so, what to say about summer? it's hot. so, so hot. i spent the entirety of spring in france fantasizing about sun and warmth, but this is excessive. merely walking outside drains you of energy. and much as i love my house, it was not built to be efficiently air-conditioned, so mostly it's just hot inside as well. if anyone can point me to a location that remains 75 degrees and sunny year-round, i will be most grateful...
other than that, there's jump therapy (or torture therapy, as it's affectionately known in my household). on the one hand, pain. on the other hand, the improvement is evident. it's always nice to feel like you're getting somewhere. only four more classes + final evaluations, and then (horrors) i'm back to having to motivate myself to exercise. on the roster for the fall: an introductory dance class ("from africa to america" - i wanted your basic "intro to dance," but my dear math advisor wouldn't let me out of taking probability, so. should be interesting...) as well as a repeat of swim for conditioning, if someone in the p.e. department gets around to overriding banner for me. i'm trying very hard not to remember how painful that class was before it got satisfying.
other than tri-weekly torture, i'm also teaching algebra to my brother and a variable number of his classmates (the maximum number was 6, before one of them went to switzerland and another got a job). they only covered 8 out of 12 chapters during the school year, missing such important things as systems of linear equations and quadratic functions. (i'm sort of wondering what was covered in the 8 chapters before that. for the record, algebra: structure and method is a stupid algebra book. saxon is much better. nothing that teaches "guess and check" as a viable problem-solving method will ever get my vote. however, we're moving a lot faster than they did during the school year, so that's something. i'm really enjoying teaching. it probably helps that it's a) a tiny class and b) we're only meeting three hours a week, but i think i'm actually not bad at this. and it turns out that assigning homework and administering tests is quite fun, in a mildly sadistic way. :P
my social life mostly involves me and my books and tv shows, interspersed with periodic concentrated doses of other people, which is fine with me. i've never been one for constant togetherness, but i got particularly used to being alone while in france. being back at midd might be something of an adjustment. i'm really excited to be back on a residential campus, though. the thought of not having to carry everything i need for a day with me when i leave in the morning is particularly thrilling. it will also be very pleasant to not feel like leaving my dorm in sweatpants is a criminal offense. (speaking of which, i was sorting through my clothes today, and goodness gracious do i have a lot of sweatpants. how american of me.)
i could ramble at you some more, dear readers, but i think i will instead go get my things together for math/torture therapy tomorrow and see what there is to be watched on netflix streaming (the greatest invention since sliced bread, and they haven't yet figured out that they should make it so an account can only be logged in on one computer at a time...hurrah). adieu!
so, what to say about summer? it's hot. so, so hot. i spent the entirety of spring in france fantasizing about sun and warmth, but this is excessive. merely walking outside drains you of energy. and much as i love my house, it was not built to be efficiently air-conditioned, so mostly it's just hot inside as well. if anyone can point me to a location that remains 75 degrees and sunny year-round, i will be most grateful...
other than that, there's jump therapy (or torture therapy, as it's affectionately known in my household). on the one hand, pain. on the other hand, the improvement is evident. it's always nice to feel like you're getting somewhere. only four more classes + final evaluations, and then (horrors) i'm back to having to motivate myself to exercise. on the roster for the fall: an introductory dance class ("from africa to america" - i wanted your basic "intro to dance," but my dear math advisor wouldn't let me out of taking probability, so. should be interesting...) as well as a repeat of swim for conditioning, if someone in the p.e. department gets around to overriding banner for me. i'm trying very hard not to remember how painful that class was before it got satisfying.
other than tri-weekly torture, i'm also teaching algebra to my brother and a variable number of his classmates (the maximum number was 6, before one of them went to switzerland and another got a job). they only covered 8 out of 12 chapters during the school year, missing such important things as systems of linear equations and quadratic functions. (i'm sort of wondering what was covered in the 8 chapters before that. for the record, algebra: structure and method is a stupid algebra book. saxon is much better. nothing that teaches "guess and check" as a viable problem-solving method will ever get my vote. however, we're moving a lot faster than they did during the school year, so that's something. i'm really enjoying teaching. it probably helps that it's a) a tiny class and b) we're only meeting three hours a week, but i think i'm actually not bad at this. and it turns out that assigning homework and administering tests is quite fun, in a mildly sadistic way. :P
my social life mostly involves me and my books and tv shows, interspersed with periodic concentrated doses of other people, which is fine with me. i've never been one for constant togetherness, but i got particularly used to being alone while in france. being back at midd might be something of an adjustment. i'm really excited to be back on a residential campus, though. the thought of not having to carry everything i need for a day with me when i leave in the morning is particularly thrilling. it will also be very pleasant to not feel like leaving my dorm in sweatpants is a criminal offense. (speaking of which, i was sorting through my clothes today, and goodness gracious do i have a lot of sweatpants. how american of me.)
i could ramble at you some more, dear readers, but i think i will instead go get my things together for math/torture therapy tomorrow and see what there is to be watched on netflix streaming (the greatest invention since sliced bread, and they haven't yet figured out that they should make it so an account can only be logged in on one computer at a time...hurrah). adieu!
